[New] FIRST HIGH SPEED TRAIN FROM MURCIA DEPARTS LATE

Transport, Raquel S·nchez; the President of the Murcia Community, Fernando LÛpezMiras and the Secretary of State for Transport, Isabel Pardo de Vera.

The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, also joined the train when it stopped at Elche.

The other AVE services originate and end at the Puerta de Atocha station in Madrid with stops in Orihuela, Elche, Alicante, Villena, Albacete and Cuenca. Travel time for this journey is 3 hours and 25 minutes.

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Following the official inauguration of the service on Monday by the King of Spain, regular passengers on the first high-speed train to leave Murcia for Madrid on Tuesday were delayed, only by 4 minutes, but considering the normal punctuality of trains in Spain that was a little disappointing for some.

The first train was scheduled to depart Murcia at 06:25, but due to a fault with one of the luggage control machines, the departure was delayed.

There were 302 passengers on board from Murcia, with another 15 joining at Orihuela, and 26 jumping on in Elche. Therefore, a total of 343 passengers were taken to Madrid on the train which had capacity for 354, making it almost full.

In total, on the first day, 2,100 passengers travelled on the new service, according to Renfe, of which 1,900 began in Murcia.

The service was launched with a special offer ticket price of 19 euro each way for the first 30,000 tickets, thus bringing in just short of 40,000 euro on the first day.

With a journey time of 2 hours and 45 minutes, it will start and end at the Madrid ChamartÌn Clara Campoamor station with intermediate stops in Orihuela and Elche.

On the previous day His Majesty the King travelled from Madrid to Murcia on the inaugural journey of the new high speed train link between the two cities together with Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, the Minister of